Pundaodaya, Camalia A Educ 2 Safiya

Subject : Ethics

REFLECTION

Film Reflection on Spotlight A Tom McCarthy film in 2015 and an Academy Award Best Picture
winner and 5 other nominations from the same organization, Spotlight is filled with stars such as
Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Michael Keaton, and Live Schreiber. The film depicts the true
story of the investigative Boston Globe <Spotlight= team reporters in Boston where they
uncovered a distressful scandal that is occurring within the Catholic Church and some law
officials who tried to cover up priests molesting children. I had no prior knowledge before
watching the film, not knowing a bit on what the plot is about. But just the fact that it is an
Academy Award winner, I had to watch it. As the film slowly progresses, I was consistently
shocked and outright disturbed like wanting to puke as these events unfolded, and especially
surprised on how good the film was. After watching the movie, this emphasized the thought
that not every man and even woman who takes the cloth is righteous. I was especially mad by
the Catholic Church leaders who knew the sins of their priests that instead of giving justice to
the victims, they tried covering it up. I commend the reporters for their courageous work of
doing a very good deed in the society. Shedding light among the victims of molestation by these
<priests=, and although I am a Catholic, I condemn the Church for this outrageous scandal.
Rezendes (2002) informs that more than 130 people since the middle 1990s have come into the
light with horrendous childhood experiences about how one former priest John J. Geoghan
alleged rape cases of them in half-dozen Greater Boston parishes in a three-decade spree, and
that only informs us of one priest. Imagine how many victims are there if all other priests who
have been molesting children all over the globe will be put in the light. As the film portrayed, the
Catholic Church spends gross amounts of money to quietly settle lawsuits from victims outside
of court for the purpose of protecting itself from the public eye by confidentiality arrangements.
This is the type of breakout story of brave reporters who went against one of the largest
churches on the globe that wins journalistic accolades and awards which increases
readership, as well as puts more confidence on their reputation as journalists. The feel I got as a
viewer is that these reporters truly cared deeply about the city of Boston and its people, so they
knew truly in their hearts that this story was needed to be told, and ever since the article was
posted by the Boston Globe staff, the number of alleged victims of priestly sexual abuse stepping
into the light from all over the globe had also risen up. In my opinion, Spotlight is one of the
most driving portrayals of what good journalism I have ever experienced in a film—not only
referring to the technical aspects of the film (writing, cinematography, lighting, etc), I am also
referring to the ethical nature itself, as well as the compassion surrounding the team of writers.
Moreover, Spotlight as film, is selectively merciful. Rather than attacking wholly the Church and
its religion, the film chose to shine light on how wicked evil is and the catastrophe of stolen faith.
I ended the film with a sad expression but at the same time very grateful for the production as
this story shed another perspective of how the world be terrifying.